AUSTRIAN MEP Georg Mayer fervently supported the call to arms from Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini for European populist parties to unite ahead of the European Election, suggesting they could put an end to the monetary demands of the European Union.

Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has urged the Polish populist Government to join forces with Italy and Hungary against plans for further European integration. Mr Mayer appeared supportive of the proposal as he suggested a populist alliance across Europe could help bring change to European Union institutions. He insisted a major changing point the group could push for is increased demands for economic contribution to the European budget.

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Speaking to Euronews, the Austrian MEP said: "I don’t like the term anti-EU alliance because it is not. We want to change something in the institutions, in the European Union and that’s the reason why we try to unite.

"A lot of things we can change in this House, and in the Commission. First of all, we don’t want – Britain is leaving and still they want more money from the member states. That’s something that Austria said ‘no, stop it,’ because you can’t have some kind of going deeper in your administration to try and save money there.

"That’s one of the biggest things. We don’t want to support more money to the European Union. There should be some kind of cost reduction or check for your own administration."

Mr Mayer also said populist parties across the bloc had voiced concern about the "same problems" and could find common ground to establish a strong political group ahead of the European Elections scheduled to take place in May.

EU News: Mayer appeared upbeat about the prospect of a EU-wide populist group being formed (Image: EURONES•EC AUDIOVISUAL)

In addition to the growing economic demands from Brussels, Mr Mayer insisted sovereignty could play a major role in bringing European parties together.

He continued: "I’ve been in the political business for more than ten years and people always say ‘how can you unite nationalist parties?’ But that’s not a problem because we all have the same problems in Europe, in the European Union.

"We don’t want to give more competences to the European Union, we want to get competence back and that is one of the main goals for us. The position of the Polish and the Italians are not that far away as you may think.

"At the moment, we are not working together. The Polish party is sitting in the ECR, we are in the ENF together with the Lega so we already have our basic political programme for this period and there will be a change in the next period so we can get as many parties as possible."

He added: "These parties are not right-wing parties or extremist parties. These parties, if you want to call them populist parties, listen to the people and we want the people saying what the problems are."

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Lega leader Mr Salvini claimed Italy is on track to become the "engine of the European Renaissance" as he vowed his Government would help return the EU to its original mission.

Mr Salvini said EU leaders have failed to guarantee full employment and economic welfare to citizens across the bloc – allegedly breaching their commitment to the Maastricht Treaty.

Speaking to Italian radio RTL on Thursday, the Lega leader said: "Europe needs to rediscover its original vision, its original mission of doing fewer things and do them well, guaranteeing full employment - as it is set out in the Maastricht Treaty - guaranteeing the economic and social welfare of the European people.

“I would challenge anyone who is listening right now - whether they like Salvini or not - to tell me that this European bureaucracy is guaranteeing economic and social welfare and full employment.

"We are working on a Europe that looks forward, that is freer and more respectful of the individual national realities.”

In addition, Mr Salvini admitted to wanting to play a greater role in the co-operation between EU governments, the so-called councils, through new alliances.

Brussels diplomatic circles, therefore, fear Europe could "change for the worse" because of the new power structures after the European elections take place.